Written by an expert on PTSD and veterans, A Vietnam Trilogy studies the psychiatric impact of war on soldiers and veterans during and in the decades after the violence, and recommends proven innovative therapies.

This, the second volume in A Vietnam Trilogy, details the experiences of a university study abroad program that included three Vietnam veterans. A journal traces that journey. Recommendations for universities, veteran groups and others planning to visit Vietnam are included.

Dr. Scurfield concludes with a compelling formulation of what remains to be done concerning healing from the war — indeed, any war — and how to go about it.

About the Author

This 3-volume series, Vietnam Trilogy, has been selected as one of four finalists for the MWSA (Military Writers Society of America) 2009 non-fiction book award. Raymond Monsour Scurfield, DSW, LCSW, ACSW, is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi—Gulf Coast. A Vietnam veteran, he worked for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs for 25 years and directed PTSD mental health programs in Los Angeles, Washington DC, the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and American Samoa.

Dr. Scurfield is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise in war-related PTSD through his leadership of innovative treatment programs, 50+ publications, 250+ presentations, educational videos, national media appearances and research.

Scurfield has published works on racism and PTSD, and the continuing psychological impact of the events of 9/11. He co-led an award-winning study-abroad course taking three combat veterans and 16 history students to Vietnam, in 2000, in a program that uniquely combined history and mental health curriculum and experiential learning.

Scurfield has received several outstanding university teacher awards and he was awarded the Department of Veterans Affairs Olin E. Teague award for extraordinary contributions benefiting war-injured veterans. He received the 2006 Mississippi Social Worker of the Year Award by the Mississippi Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers in recognition of his post-Hurricane Katrina social work activities and post-traumatic stress interventions on the MS Gulf Coast since August 29, 2005. His achievements in the study and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder have become landmarks in psychiatry.

About the Book

A Vietnam Trilogy is about a side of war that for decades pro-military and pro-defense advocates have systematically suppressed, minimized and denigrated as being falsely exaggerated — the indelible human cost of war on its participants that...

A Vietnam Trilogy is about a side of war that for decades pro-military and pro-defense advocates have systematically suppressed, minimized and denigrated as being falsely exaggerated — the indelible human cost of war on its participants that can and does persist for decades. The 3.14 million Vietnam war-zone veterans and 800,000 Vietnam-theater veterans suffering full or partial post-traumatic stress syndrome, and their families will find it invaluable.

Volume 2, HEALING JOURNEYS, focuses on three Vietnam Vets making a return trip accompanying 16 students on a Study Abroad history course. Especially in the post 9/11, post-Iraq world, this trilogy is important reading for academics and mental health professionals including graduate and undergrad students in history, psychology, social work and religion, and professionals in psychiatry, clinical nursing, counseling, and religion, and academic specialists interested in study-abroad programs.

Through the wrenching stories of veterans and the author’s own understanding as a mental health professional, Scurfield describes his and his comrades’ experiences during the war; then he describes the healing process fostered by innovative return trips he has led to peace-time Vietnam in 1989 and, in conjunction with a university history program, in 2000, described in this volume.

A Vietnam Trilogy offers veterans and their families a vicarious "healing journey" by relating the experiences of those who participated in these therapeutic efforts, and offers recommendations to veterans and those who wish to help them.

The therapy breakthroughs for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are now the model for innovative programs across America; and they will be the foundation for programs to help today’s veterans of the Iraq War.

The current volume continues from 1990 to 2000 (including a discussion of the impact of the first Gulf War on veterans of earlier wars) and a second return trip to Vietnam in 2000, as part of a university Study Abroad program, to help veterans in their healing process.

Volume 3, From Vietnam to Iraq (Algora, fall 2006), will complete the Trilogy with a consideration of the experience of prior wars to help people who are now in the military or in the healing professions, and their families and communities, to deal with today’s realities of combat and its aftermath.

Scurfield (social work, U. of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast) has been involved in treating post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans for nearly 40 years. This text is the second of three volumes in which he reflects upon his therapeutic career and recounts a trip to Vietnam in the year 2000, in which three Vietnam veterans returned to former battle sites as part of their therapy. Scurfield reflects on the trip and uses it to consider the opportunities and pitfalls of this sort of travel as a therapeutic practice.

As with his first installment in the promised trilogy, A Vietnam Trilogy: Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress: 1968, 1989, 2000 (2004), Scurfield's extensive work with Vietnam veterans in his 25 -year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs informs and enriches this work. He builds on his previous work to recount his ongoing personal and professional metamorphoses that culminate in the study abroad program with faculty colleagues and students from his university.

The current adventure commingles 16 under-graduate history students, a history professor, three Vietnam combat veterans, and two mental health professionals (including Scurfield) in a trip to Vietnam for a study abroad experience. This second volume focuses on the decade of 1990 to 2000, using the study abroad model as a vehicle to address lessons learned— and lessons ignored (the focus of the third volume) — from Vietnam as the United States was preparing for and responding to the effects of the first Gulf War.

The text logically and usefully organizes itself in three sections. The first four chapters address broad topical areas including comparisons between the Vietnam and the Gulf Wars, the experiences of med­ically evacuated combatants, "managing" the "truth" about the impact of war, and racism. These chapters provide very useful perspectives and seem to set the stage for Scurfield's final trilogy installment due out later this year.

The second section (Chapters 5 and 6) focuses on the study abroad experience with the history students. Relying heavily on his journal entries, Scurfield recounts and analyzes the dynamics of the segments of the travel group (students, faculty, therapists, vet­erans) and the group as a unit. The trip, while pro­viding unique opportunities for all travelers to interact, surfaced some generational conflicts and stressors as well as scholarly interest differences.

The final two chapters include important reflec¬tions and assessment of the impact of this trip and compare it to Scurfield's previous trip that was the focus of Volume 1 of this trilogy. The appendix contains an outline of important elements in planning a trip and unflinchingly identifies "What We Missed" (p. 216).

Scurfield provides substantial contextual infor­mation about U.S. experiences during and shortly after involvement in Vietnam. Among the issues that are addressed are selective amnesia and denial, racism, physically wounded veterans, and institu­tional responses to the needs of Vietnam veterans. The treatment of these issues includes asides and soliloquy from Scurfield, reminiscent of the first vol­ume. As with the first volume, some of these com­ments seem pedestrian and self evident.

The discussion explicates what Scurfield asserts is the evidence for and the consequences of a self-serving depiction of military combat in Vietnam. His more cogent points concern the deliberate manipu­lation of information and reframing of issues by governments. This element of his discussion is rem­iniscent of George Lakoff's (2002) conceptualiza­tion of the framing of issues.

In this regard, Scurfield seems to take a rather pejorative and judgmental view of U.S. Vietnam War veterans who traveled to the Soviet Union in 1989 on a citizen diplomacy mission. Scurfield's assessment of the trip criticized the U.S. veterans for (a) abandoning their fellow veterans and (b) denying/avoiding address­ing their own Vietnam experiences. To his credit, he does soften and ultimately abandon this view, coinci­dentally, when he had the opportunity to host Russian veterans of their war with Afghanistan at his Veterans Administration PTSD treatment program.

Much like the first volume; this work provides an "on the ground" perspective on the issues — the return trip of U.S. veterans in Volume 1 and the study abroad experience in this volume. The richness is heightened by the unexpected occurrences and the team's use of them as teachable moments.

The work does not provide a template for all study abroad programs, but it does a good job of providing useful insights as to the conduct of such programs and the need for flexibility and to capitalize on unexpected opportunities for teachable moments.

A limitation of this work is Scurfield's occasional near obsession with the war experience (perhaps a reason for feedback from some students that Scurfield was "too serious") and troubling sporadic lapses into talking about the traveling veterans as objects. Scurfield seems to be somewhat preoccupied with his role as therapist and allows this to color his perspective on his observations and experiences — perhaps an artifact of his quarter century of work in a decidedly medical model-oriented Veterans Administration where he treated clients' psychosocial problems.

Overall, this is a very good resource for persons who are interested in knowing more about the Vietnam War from a very personal level. It also has insights for clinicians and educators that can be useful in understanding the personal impacts of combat as well as practical considerations for planning study abroad experiences. For students, it provides opportunities to experience vicariously the effects of combat through direct contact and dialogue with combatants, making the experience potentially powerfully immediate, although generational differences confound this outcome. It is a good read and a good addition to the knowledge base about combat, consequence and legacy.

Gary E. May, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Southern Indiana

Personally, I wondered what impact this series of books would have on me. I am not a veteran, I have a son who served eight years in the Marines, but is a non-combat veteran. So...should others like me take the time to read these books? They are not what I would call an "easy read" whatsoever, but I would call them an "essential read," for all of us have been impacted by war and know people that are struggling with PTSD issues. For me, having the input of "other voices" beyond Dr. Raymond Scurfield's allowed me to hear the stories from more than one voice and helped me to "experience" through them, the impact that war had on each and every one of them. Dr. Scurfield is an expert whose voice is being heard around the world. Anyone who is experiencing PTSD or knows someone struggling with PTSD would be wise in reading these books. They would be a wonderful resource for mental health professionals. We may not have learned enough from Vietnam, but Dr. Scurfield brings us the hope that we need for moving into our future.

As a clinical psychologist and veteran of the War in Iraq, I can assure you that my review of the current literature has been extensive. To date, nothing published contains such extraordinary real world relevance as that which has been submitted to Algora Publishing by Dr. Scurfield here simply is nothing else that captures the essence of the impact of war on combat veterans. Volume 2, Healing Journeys, in and of itself contains invaluable material regarding medical evacuations, racism in war, and the terrible collusion of silence that continues to be an issue of tremendous proportion that has plagued many soldiers; issues which are rarely, if ever, addressed in other published material.

Vietnam Trilogy will be a tremendous service to those of us in uniform who have served, as well as those charged with providing for the psychological well-being of our combat veterans, their families, mental health professionals, and the general public.

Scurfield’s extensive work with Vietnam veterans in his 25 year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs informs and enriches this work, which includes very engaging treatments of his return to Vietnam with his clients. Finally, the general public (read non veteran and non therapist) will find the treatment of the personal challenges and changes forged in war intriguing. Together these three works will provide a personalized background of where weÃ‚Â’ve been, where we went, how we got there and possible future implications for our evolving understanding of the Vietnam war and its impacts on participants, policy makers and the public. We have a long way to go to develop this understanding, but A Vietnam Trilogy is a very good place to start.

-- Gary E. May, Assoc. Prof. of Social Work, University of Southern Indiana